topic Re: Sending to multiple email addresses in Archive

Sending to multiple email addresses

Michaela-CAVS — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 10:15:04 GMT

Is there a maximum number of contacts an email can be sent to. We have meeting distrution lists for various meetings and some of them are in excess of 50 recipients. I can use Outlook Express without a problem but my colleague is using Microsoft Outlook and receives the error message 'Too many recipients'.

Thanks

Re: Sending to multiple email addresses

sambadabing — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 10:49:19 GMT

I think it has been restricted to 50 emails at a time due to a new spamming filter being put in place. Anything over 50 will get the rejected message as it is being seen as spam.

Re: Sending to multiple email addresses

Diamond88 — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 11:28:31 GMT

Hi,

I've had a similar query and managed to find this FAQ about sending emails to multiple addresses helpful.

Hope this helps.

Message Edited by James on 27-01-2009 11:28 AM

Re: Sending to multiple email addresses

Rodka — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 22:12:11 GMT

Thanks for the answers everyone. It hardly seems worth having BT Business package. We are thinking of moving; can anyone suggest a good email provider for a business?

Many thanks

Rodka

Re: Sending to multiple email addresses

blondemoments — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 17:33:22 GMT

Hello Rodka

Until November 08, we were able to e-mail approx 475 clients (who have actually requested information) at one time. Suddenly, without any notice from BT, we can now only send to 50 at a time. To say that this is inconvenient is putting it mildly. In various discussions with BT, I have been advised that the maximum is 25, 50 and 199 at a time. I spent many hours splitting my lists down into 199 and tried to send an e-mail yesterday - it was rejected! I again spoke with BT and was advised that 50 is now the maximum. I have complained, but am still waiting for a response. I have been very loyal to BT for many years (despite many tempting offers to move the account elsewhere). As BT is now threatening the survival of my business, I am prepared to move elsewhere. Have you had any advice from other members as to who is a good e-mail provider for business? Many thanks

Blonde Moments

Re: Sending to multiple email addresses

Rodka — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 13:17:02 GMT

Dear Blonde Moment.

With the Christmas and New Year break we have not had to send out emails, but of course now we are in 2009 we must get business going again.

The assistance from BT has been minimal, after spending hours on the phone to them and asking for a daily update of the progress with the 'problem'.

It looks like BT has decided on this 50 limit and is not prepared to assist with the problem. We left AOL a few years back because of the same problem. One assistant told me to un plug and the re plug my router which should give a different isp number - it didnt work and it doesnt seem that you can get throught to anyone who can actually DO anything. What a way to treat business customers - it could only happen in England!

Let me know how you are getting on.

Cheers

Rodka

Re: Sending to multiple email addresses

TheOtherOne — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 13:46:14 GMT

Hi folks,

The limit on the number of emails depends on which package you're on, that article that Diamond88 found there is pretty good as it explains what each package's limit is.

Looks like the maximum is 500 if sent via Outlook RPC/HTTPS, so I am guessing that's what you are using Blonde Moments (or were you on the Email Lite package all along and BT changed the email limit recently? Only asking because I thought the Lite package always had a "cap" of 50 emails, but I could be wrong).

I guess anyone that's on the Email Lite package might need to upgrade if 50 isn't enough. In this day and age the use of email is vital for any business, so the higher the limit the better!

TheOtherOne

Re: Sending to multiple email addresses

MadDragon — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 12:55:22 GMT

I am absolutely breathing fire about this one. Have just been told by BT that unless we pay an extra £7.50 per month for the 'Organise and Share' package, introduced without warning, we will no longer be able to send to more than 50 recipients at a time. We are a small theatre with a few hundred people on the mailing list. This money grabbing exercise by BT has actually cost us money and made us look unprofessional.

Re: Sending to multiple email addresses

Rodka — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 13:08:52 GMT

Maybe BT just doesnt want business customers. You would think that the managment of BT would get someone on these boards to give us some decent answers..................

Re: Sending to multiple email addresses

Kirok — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 22:51:49 GMT

Its a bit of a hack but the ways around the limit without paying for the service would be to:

Use bulk/mass mailer software and break the distribution list into chunks of 50 then send out email to each chunk say once every 30 secondes or a minute
Use some scripted of bespoke software solution that does the same
Do it manually
Setup a mailing list

All of these may require some setup or IT knowledge.

I have scripts I wrote for people that work on Windows and Linux (if your using Entourage check here) that do this but its plain-text only messages and they require editiing each time. I'd post them but I don't want to support them til the end of time. If you have IT guys check with them.

Now with that said I'm going to go off on a bit of a rant:

BTs E-mail/DNS infrastructure is laughable, this is just another way of them trying to ease the load and stop abuse. Its not really their fault though they more contribute to an ongoing problem in the IT field. I suspect they hire the type of person described below.

Theres an every-man-and-his-dog thing going on right now in IT. In that everyone thinks they can do it.

Certification boot camps or the whole certification mentality don't help. Neither do some of the University or College courses out there with low standards, a tendency to pass people, not prepare them for professional life and an inability to teach them relevant stuff. I'm saying this with direct experience as I've worked with people who had a long list of certifications and I'm currently a student.

A lot of them get the job because the interviewers in a lot of situations have less knowledge and all they need to do is BS or stay one lesson ahead or be really good with home computer stuff.

People like this really need to be culled, they lower the reputation of all IT guys, they saturate the market and they could push out someone knowledgeable if they made a better first impression or have better people skills. Technical or practical interviews would be a good way but then the company would either need to outsource this or already have someone with technical knowledge.

On the subject of nepotism, the odd nepotistic hire is fine but don't fill the department with your friends or drinking buddies unless they can do the job.

If anyone reading this has hiring authority, don't hire based on degree, don't hire based on certification. If possible run your own tests and hire based on that. Even something like like pulliing a couple of problems from a forum that have already been solved and asking how the person being interviewed would solve them, if you don't have the ability to set your own tests or do something practical.

Thats not to say everyone with certifications or a degree is an idiot some people get them to be competitive or because it looks good on a CV.

Anyway end of rant.

Message Edited by Kirok on 08-01-2009 10:51 PM

Re: Sending to multiple email addresses

Rodka — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 16:14:00 GMT

Kirok, its YOU for prime minister. Lots of good practical common sense.

Over the last few weeks I have spoken on the telephone to numerous staff at BT. They have been telling me that there is a problem which they are trying to fix and ringing me up every day to let me know it is NOT fixed (as if I didnt know)

We have spent hours splitting our members from various club lists into groups of 50 - even more difficult when members are not on your contact list (each persons email address has to be individually re-written into the mailing list)

Anyway lets vote for Kirok - either for PM or MD of BT!

Re: Sending to multiple email addresses

Kirok — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 23:10:52 GMT

Heh yeah perhaps I should raise an army and establish myself as some sort of world dictator. That actually brings me on to another thing that annoys me (lots of things tend to annoy me)

The problem is a lot of ISPs, hell a lot of companies will hire for customer service thinking they can train technical ability and troubleshooting skills in a few weeks and then support it with a script and knowledgbase. Which means you get lots of smiling people who who can apologise properly, use your first name and follow the call script to the letter but can't actually fix the problem. They still do this for business level support and even for corporate level support.

Re: Sending to multiple email addresses

schtooart — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 20:42:05 GMT

Had the same problem. No prior warning. Has caused major inconvienence and till now have only been told the problem should be fixed soon. I've been waiting for 3 months and from previous posters it seems the 'fix' will cost the customer. I've started using my yahoo account to get over this short term i.e. copying in my distribution list contact details. Required a bit of editing but at least could send to 50 plus contacts.

Any useful / imformative / beneficial / BT service-support is non existent. Like many I have been with BT for years but if I can find a company with good customers feedback / report I will consider moving. BT as a company seem at times to have a death wish. I hope somebody from BT reads this forum and draws the general concerns to those who need to know (and might care).

Re: Sending to multiple email addresses

Rodka — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 21:23:23 GMT

Totally empathise Schyooart. How can a business survive with a service like we are presently getting from BT? Its amazing to think how much business is completed these days via the internet and email and yet a name like BT just cant put together the nuts and bolts for business customers to use.

If we want to delete a customer from our list now, we have to look through around 20 email lists instead of one. (Each list is now in alphbetical order)

If it is just a ruse to get more cash from us, then BT should just come clean and say so.

Re: Sending to multiple email addresses

blondemoments — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 11:00:24 GMT

Hello Rodka

Well, the story of extreme frustration continues!! I signed up a couple of weeks ago for 'Organise & Share' (at a cost of £7.50 per month) - being advised that I can now send to up to 500 at a time. However, something was still very wrong and the problem has now been looked at by 'Advanced Diagnostics' - today I am advised that each Distribution list can only contain a maximum of 150 recipients, but I can send e-mails to up to 500. Like other frustrated bloggers, this is causing extreme grief splitting the lists and then trying to find which list any particular person is on. This situation is obviously totally unacceptable to many businesses who rely on being able to send out bulk e-mails to recipients WHO HAVE ASKED FOR THE INFORMATION - not spam e-mails. Further frustrations with 'Organise & Share' - there is no way to actually display how many addresses are in each group - you have to physically count them!! All of this is totally unacceptable and whilst the 'e-mail team' is doing its very best to help me, they are powerless. There has to be a better way!! Any suggestions?

Blonde Moments

Re: Sending to multiple email addresses

BE_Product_Mngr — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 11:25:16 GMT

The current number of recipients that can be included in an email sent from a @btconnect.com email address is contained in the Size limits for sending email FAQ.

In summary …..

Email Lite and Email plus Organise customers:
Maximum recipients per email of 50 if sent via SMTP.
Maximum recipients per email of 200 if sent via Outlook Web Access.

Email plus Organise and Share customers:
Maximum recipients per email of 50 if sent via SMTP.
Maximum recipients per email of 200 if sent via Outlook Web Access.
Maximum recipients per email of 500 if sent via Outlook RPC/HTTPS.

The number of recipients that can be included in an email is not part of the email terms and conditions however we have taken action to protect the service for everyone due to the unforeseen number of our customer’s PCs being compromised. This has exposed their email account details which have been used to send Spam to and from our network. As SMTP is an unsophisticated interface for mail relay compared to other interfaces, the measures we have taken speed up the identification and removal of Spammers and hence maintain the service for all users.

We realise that this may have inconvenienced some customers by having to send 4 times as many emails if the recipients capability was used for distribution lists however this action was essential. If you are a BT Business Broadband customer we would like to understand the impact this change has made to your business operation, please email me on btbusinessemailsupport@btconnect.com

Message Edited by James on 01-06-2009 12:25 PM

Re: Sending to multiple email addresses

chrisweirman — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 11:03:51 GMT

My wife's business currently has a contact list of about 1900, to save splitting up the list into chunks of 50 I'm in the process of setting up a mailout software package to handle this for me, but part of the setup is to detail how the server handles large amounts of email traffic. Does anyone know if Btconnect has any hourly or daily emailing limits? I cant seem to find any info on the help pages about it and I've been 2nd in the queue for the online web help for about an hour already now...argh!

Thanks

Chris

Re: Sending to multiple email addresses

EnglishRose — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 09:32:06 GMT

My mailing list is about 5000 to 10,000 names sent to people who want the data ( I am in part a data protection lawyer!) and I send a quarterly mailing to them. It has always been a huge problem.

I have had to split it down to smallish numbers over the last five years. Sometimes the mailing rseults in my being blacklisted externally so I always do mailing with huge trepidation.

I was told once to unplug the modem as that can change your IP addresss and that does work sometimes.

I have now consolidated my databases and was about to do the first mailing for six months and the first one since we got fibre broadband and thought I would check BT's restrictions . I would be prepared to pay BT say a £100 one off fee each time I did these few large 10,000 email mailings but I cannot see any system like that is available.

I have tried over the years using the Bt /pop3 and my hotmail addresses etc although I prefer clients to see my work email (I do not use web based email for these work emails).

So this thread has shown BT has no service for people wanting to send lawful business emails to say 10,000 recipients unless they split them into tiny amounts of whatever it is - 50 a day - that would take me 2000 days! If I pay a little more I might get a right to send 150 a day but it may not work so hardly seems worth the extra cost. We pay for six BT lines here, two fibre lines etc etc. and yet cannot do the basic business marketing businesses need and yet woudl be happy to pay for it. Perhaps I need to find an Indian spamming expert to do it for me. The issue is time - that is what is most short so you want to be able to paste in the 10,000 emails and press send. You do not want to spend one second dividing databases up.

Re: Sending to multiple email addresses

SPShipley — Fri, 11 Dec 2015 18:32:53 GMT

Similar problem. A U3A branch tries to circulate its 250 members with a newsletter every two months. Even after the editor has spoken to BTConnect many times, and divided her list into two, she still suffers from multiple non-delivery. Not rejection as spam, just a swathe of non-deliveries - some go through on resend, some don't.

Re: Sending to multiple email addresses

PhilMun — Tue, 03 Oct 2017 11:48:03 GMT

I am not a business but secretary of an organisation and need to send emails to members. I cannot do this for more than about 8b members at a time which is very frustrating. If I send too many emails one after another then the system seizes up and synchronises for ever. How do I resolve this problem?